2007年8月14日 星期二

試譯大英百科---條目 A,a


The letter A probably started as a picture sign of an oxhead, as in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) and in a very early Semitic writing used in about 1500 BC on the Sinai Peninsula (2). In about 1000 BC, in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centers, the sign was given a linear form (3), the source of all later forms. In the Semitic languages this sign was called aleph, meaning “ox.”

The Greeks had no use for the aleph sound, the glottal stop, so they used the sign for the vowel a. They also changed its name to alpha. They used several forms of the sign, including the ancestor of the English capital A (4). The Romans took this sign over into Latin, and it is the source of the English form. The English small a first took shape in Greek handwriting in a form (5) similar to the present English capital letter. In about the 4th century AD this was given a circular shape with a projection (6). This shape was the parent of both the English handwritten character (7) and the printed small a (8

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在埃及,字母A可能是一個以公牛頭為象徵的圖形記號而開始以象形文字的形式書寫(1).
而且在西元前1500年就在西奈半島以閃族語書寫使用(2)
在大約西元前1000年,在Byblos和其他的迦南人和腓尼基人的城市,字母A就被寫成一個線形的形式(3),也就變成所有線形文字的起源.
在閃族語,A被稱為aleph ----- 也就是公牛的意思.

希臘語沒有用聲門發聲的字音,故他們沒辦法發出aleph的音,所以他們用別的記號代替母音A,把A的音改成alpha.希臘人用了好幾種形式來代表字母A,其中包含英文大寫A的祖先(4).
羅馬人把A帶入了拉丁文,而拉丁文也是現代英文的起源.
英文小寫第一次成形是在希臘文的草寫(5),但此種小寫卻與現代英文大寫A十分相像.
在大約西元四世紀,A的形狀是圓形的且有突出部(6).這種字母也就是現代英文小寫a(7)的手寫形式且書寫成a(8).

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翻的滿差勁的,有沒有眼睛博士的風格阿?
希望以後越翻越好
Orz

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